Dad arrested in Puerto Rico after missing Richmond girl found dead in suitcase

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Police identified the body of a girl found in a suitcase near train tracks in New Jersey as a missing girl from Richmond, according to a release from the Hudson County Prosecutor's office.

The exact cause of Te’Myah Layauna Plummer’s death is still unclear, but police arrested her father in Puerto Rico. Travis Lamont Plummer was taken into custody without incident by FBI agents on April 19 and is currently awaiting extradition.

His daughter’s remains were found near the train tracks in Jersey City just after 12:30 p.m. on April 11. Authorities don’t believe she died in New Jersey.

Richmond police issued a missing persons alert for Te’Myah and her 37-year-old father in March. At the time, Richmond detectives said they did not believe the father and daughter were in danger.

Te’Myah and her father, Travis L. Plummer

Richmond investigators contacted New Jersey authorities after learning about the gruesome discovery along the train tracks.

The child's age was initially thought to be about 10 months old, according to a preliminary medical examiner's report, but DNA testing at the FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia, determined her age to be closer to 2 years old.

Plummer has been charged with desecrating human remains, a second-degree crime.

Investigators are asking anyone with information in the case or anyone who remembers seeing something suspicious in the area where the baby was found to call the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Homicide Unit at 201-915-1345. Tips can be submitted anonymously here.